ATHLETICS: Macclesfield Harrier Pauline Atkinson returned from a long lay-off to win bronze at the British Veterans Athletics Championships in London.

Competing in the women's 40 age group (age range 40-45), Pauline finished third in the 5000 metres, setting a personal best and club record with an outstanding time of 18 minutes 54.10 seconds.

Another Macclesfield veteran competing at the Championships was Raph Murray, who, no doubt encouraged by his offspring's recent successes, recorded a superb time of 2minutes 05seconds in the 800 metres in the Men's 45 age group (age range 45-50).

There were two last round league matches this weekend, the Northern Men's on Saturday and the Northern Ladies on Sunday.

Wins in the men's match came from team manager Ashley Pritchard, in the javelin, with a winning throw of 46.66m, which was a personal best and broke Ashley's own club record by over a metre, and John Lawton, who won the 800 metres in 2mins 02.8secs.

With only four competing athletes, throws coach Derek Burton swapped verbal instruction for active demonstration and was justly rewarded with four personal bests, including a 14.5-second 100 metres and a 30.7-second 200 metres!

The team finished fifth in the match, and fifth in the league.

On Sunday, the only thing that stopped the ladies achieving promotion was the rain, which was so torrential that within minutes the track was ankle deep in water.

The match had to be cancelled for safety reasons half way through.

With the team's stronger events still to come, this was extremely disappointing.

Despite that, Carly Smith had already won the javelin with 27.98m, closely followed by team-mate Claire Hamilton, who won the 'B' string with 26.40m. Other wins came from: Seonaid Murray ('A' string 800 metres, 2m 26s) and Rachel Pleeth ('B' string 800 metres and 3000 metres); while Sarah Jones came second in the 'A' string 3000 metres in 10m 39s.

Another athlete who performed well was the ladies' tireless team manager Georgina Rowson, who came second in the hammer with 19.46m, just 50 centimetres shy of the club record she set two weeks ago.

The ladies finished third in the league, just one place short of promotion.

Thanks go to Ashley Pritchard and Georgina Rowson, who have both done a superb job as team managers and supplied all the results over the summer.

Next track competition is the Cheshire League at Crewe on August 11.

Away from the track, Macclesfield's Harriers have been busy with three fell races.

The first, 'The Roaches', part of the Staffordshire Moorlands Race Series, saw Tim Stock lead the Harriers home in 13th place in 42min 15secs.